Surgical clamps of a wide variety of shapes and sizes, tailored to the surgical procedure for which they are intended, are known and commercailly available. For orthopedic surgery, for example, there are bone clamps of various types, cartilage clamps and meniscus clamps, all of which utilize a box-lock consisting of mating serrations on the confronting surfaces of their scissor-like handles. Although available clamps are generally satisfactory for their intended purpose, it has been found in practice that known meniscus clamps leave much to be desired. While such clamps purport to be self-locking, they do not exert even pressure on the meniscus, particularly when it is necessary for the surgeon to pull on the clamp to withdraw the meniscus from between the knee joint. In so doing with the classical box-lock clamp, the surgeon changes the pressure with which the meniscus is gripped, often resulting in tearing of the meniscal tissue and loss of the grip. this is frustrating to the surgeon because when the clamp comes free, the meniscus tends to recede into the knee joint and has to again be withdrawn and the clamp reset at a different location. Such failures of the clamp of course prolong the operation and also complicates it in terms of wound healing.